1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in the method for control, and convenient deployment and transport of gravity powered snow vehicles of the type particularly, but not exclusively, to generic ski/snow bikes and ski/snow scooters.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, generic ski/snow-bikes and scooters, skate-skis, board-skis, and disabled-skier vehicles have gained significant acceptance and access in increasing numbers of North American resorts. General awareness of these vehicles is facilitating access for non-skier/riders and alternative sporting expressions on snow. It is this situation that makes this type of winter sports vehicles attractive.
Generic ski/snow-bikes are generally of similar characteristics to that of conventional bicycles, with comparable riding positions, seated or standing. To execute maneuvers, a forward handlebar steering column is used to turn a ski, snowboard, or dedicated sliding element. Vehicular control comes from making relative angle changes, through the handlebar, between the skis or sliding elements attached to the vehicle fore and aft, and in general foot skis are required to augment steering, stability, and braking. A typical example, FIG. 1, which is the subject of a patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,055, was issued on Jun. 27, 1978 to Kevin W. Laycraft, which is not admitted to being prior art by its mention in this Background section. This is again similar to a conventional bicycle, where making relative angle changes to the wheels changes the direction of the vehicle, but without the gyroscopic forces that help steering and stability.
Although this method of control is general practice on ski/snow bikes, it is however a compromised solution that does not take advantage of the direct and subtle control over the skis/snowboard which skiers and riders enjoy through their bindings. It is through these direct control inputs that make skiers and riders so agile, achieving high performance, capable of tackling challenging terrain and performing very difficult and trick maneuvers.
Basic alpine, downhill ‘shaped’ skis, skiing technique requires weight transfer, fore and aft along the skis, for skidding turns, and ‘edging’ the sides of the skis to ‘cut’ into the snow, for efficient high-angle, non-skidding, ‘carved’, turns. It is beyond the scope of this document to explain the subtleties of alpine skiing but nevertheless practiced application of the said actions can result in very high levels of control and performance on prepared, natural, and extreme conditions. This is quite obvious to skiing enthusiasts.
Basic snowboarding technique is similar to downhill skiing. By using similar actions of weight transfer along the snowboard for skidding turns, and edging the sides of the snowboard for ‘carved’ turns, fine control is achieved. One additional control input available to the snowboarder is ‘twist’ along the length of the snowboard. This action gives a similar result to weight shifting along the snowboard, but does not require weight shifting.
Again, it is beyond the scope of this document to explain the subtleties of snowboarding, but nevertheless practiced application of said actions can result in very high levels of control and performance on prepared, natural, and extreme conditions. It is also particular to snowboarding that some radical maneuvers, tricks, are easier to perform than on two separate skis. This is quite obvious to snowboard enthusiasts.
The SNOWDECK, which is a registered trademark of the Burton Corporation for “skateboards for snow,” is shown in FIG. 2. The SNOWDECK is not admitted to being prior art by its mention in this Background section. The SNOWDECK board provides a snow-skateboard design wherein a skateboard-type platform is employed over a small, shaped, duo-direction ski. This design is ridden, without bindings, on the platform in a similar fashion to skateboards, using weight shifting and edging, but NOT twisting, and provides no handle or seat to assist the rider. This device is very challenging to ride and suitable only for well-prepared trails, and not for high performance or uneven terrain.
Ski/snow bikes are in general rather bulky and not easily transportable, or of convenient size or configuration, for ascending systems generally used at resorts. These systems—surface tows, cable tows, chair lifts, gondolas, et cetera—are designed for use by skiers and riders, and investing in adapting them for use with generic ski/snow bikes is unlikely. As a consequence, ski/snow bikes will need to be designed for use with these systems if it is to achieve commercial success and the same freedom skiers and riders enjoy at resorts. An example, in FIG. 3, of a folding ski/snow bike is the subject of a patent; U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,051, issued on Jan. 26, 1999 to Erich Brenter, which is not admitted to being prior art by its mention in this Background section. This vehicle has a good deployed-to-collapsed volume ratio, but is not of a suitable configuration to ride on chairlifts and gondolas or compatible with receptacles associated with them for carrying skis and snowboards. And also, when deployed, it still uses the typical characteristics of ski/snow bikes, FIG. 1, which is a flawed adaptation from the bicycling world.
Currently, no ski/snow bike/scooter manufacturers has been able to develop and market a vehicle that can exploit the advantage of the techniques used in alpine skiing and snowboard riding, especially the technique or method for twisting along the length of the ski, sliding element or snowboard, and provide easy transportability and a compact configuration, for access, for ascending systems, and for their associated receptacles. The present invention takes advantage of skiing and snowboarding techniques, especially that involving twisting along the length of the, sliding element, ski or snowboard, to equip riders with a vehicle that provides direct and intuitive control to attain a high level of agility, performance, and terrain tolerance, as well as of a character and configurations that allow complete access to any resort or terrain.